Jan. 27, 1963 - Outfielder Sam Rice (pictured in 1924), perched on the doorstep of baseball’s Hall of Fame for several years, finally was elected to Cooperstown today along with pitchers Eppa Rixey and John Clarkson and outfielder Elmer Flick. Election of all four players was unanimous. Clarkson, who played with Chicago, Boston, and Cleveland in the National League before 1900, is the only one of today’s elected players not living. Repeatedly passed over in past balloting by the main body of the Baseball Writers’ Association, the 70-year-old Rice “should have been elected to the Hall of Fame long ago,” according to the late Ty Cobb, who was the first man ever to be enshrined. Never a power hitter, Rice amassed only 34 home runs during his 19 seasons in the American League, but he collected 2,987 hits and, as a Washington Senator, set a World Series record which has never been broken with 12 hits in the 1925 classic. The Senators lost the series in seven games to the Pittsburgh Pirates. After learning of his election to the Hall of Fame, Rice said today, “I knew it was coming some time if I lived long enough. I’m glad it came now rather than in four or five years.”
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